Technology expert, Graham Oakes, discusses the role of teaching in the brave new world of e-learning.
e-learning has gathered a lot of attention over the years. It’s been at the crest of the wave, back in the late 90’s, when technology startups were going to change the world. It’s been in the troughs of despair, when they’d burnt through their venture capital and the world was still pretty much the same. Now it’s back on the ascendancy. The cry is clear: a personal learning environment for every student!
Sometimes in the midst of all this noise, people seem to forget that teachers are involved in the process somewhere too.
Perhaps they aren’t exactly forgotten. Someone needs to create content. Maybe even moderate discussions. We certainly recognise the need to manage their resistance to change. But serious discussion about what technology-enabled learning means for the role of the teacher seems a little thin on the ground.
I want to shift the lens a little and think about what teaching might look like in this brave new world of e-learning. This isn’t to say that the learner-centred view isn’t important. It is. I just happen to believe that teachers will continue to play a vital role in helping people to learn. If we don’t have a clear view of what this role is, then we’re unlikely to build appropriate support for it into the systems we’re shaping up to buy.